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Saturday, January 3, 2015

#81: Persona Q: Shadow of the Pacing

There is
an interesting thing about saying that I will not play anymore ATLUS
games for a while. That is, “a while” is a relative term. In this
case, it means “until another ATLUS game comes out that I want to
play”. With the release of Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, that
time came much sooner than I anticipated. This game represents an
interesting new take on the Persona franchise. While it is a
crossover between Persona 3 and Persona 4, it is also a crossover in
terms of mechanics. The makers of the Etrian Odyssey and the Persona
franchises co-developed Persona Q. As a result, Persona Q represents
a synthesis of the two franchises' mechanics and design ideologies.
In many ways, this improves upon the gameplay. In other ways, there
were a few setbacks. One of these setbacks is what I wish to talk
about this week.

The
problem I am referring to is one that JRPGs frequently get wrong: The
pacing. Far too often, RPGs do not know how to properly pace
themselves out. As a result, the game begins to grow stale too early,
making the rest of the game more of a test of endurance than an
enjoyable pastime. Persona Q suffers this as well. Around the time of
the 4th of the game's 5 dungeons, the game began to drag on. I found
this particularly peculiar because I had played through the entirety
of Persona 3 and 4, approximately 70 hours each, and enjoyed my
experiences even to the very end. With Persona Q, I was getting tired
around 50 hours in. Though the game is certainly fun to play, there
can very well be too much of a good thing.

In
Persona Q, dungeon-crawling is basically the only thing that the
player does. As foreshadowed by the title, players must explore the
various labyrinths, all based around specific themes, and beat the
boss at the end of each one. Each labyrinth is composed of a series
of floors. In each floor, there is some form of gimmick that must be
worked around in order make it to the next level. Each gimmick is
usually pretty simple on its own. The difficulty comes from the fact
that the floor is typically fairly large. If the player is not doing
any of the side-quests in the game, a typical level will take
approximately one hour to fully explore.

On top
of that, since the play is largely inspired by Etrian Odyssey, the
player is responsible for drawing, marking, and maintaining the map
of the current floor as they progress. Assuming the player's map was
drawn with sufficient detail, solving the gimmick of the current
floor should take about 10 to 15 minutes. Combined, this means that
at a minimum, it will take approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes per
floor, assuming that the player is only aiming for completion. Since
the typical labyrinth is 4 floors long, followed by one last floor
for the boss, it will take almost 6 hours to explore. That is six
hours of playtime with little in terms of variance in scenery,
enemies, or gimmicks in the labyrinths.

To
contrast this statistic, Persona 3 and Persona 4 operate differently.
Though the two games present dungeon-crawling differently, they are
similar in their approaches. Persona 3 has one single dungeon, the
tower of Tartarus, that players ascend gradually throughout the
entire game. The tower is composed of six different blocks, each with
its own decor. Further, each block is subdivided into smaller chucks
of about 10 to 15 floor, with its own assortment of enemies and a
mini-boss at the end of each level. The floors are procedurally
generated. On each floor is a randomized assortment of treasure
chests and monsters. Furthermore, there is a staircase that advances
to the next floor.

Persona
4 does not use the imagery of ascending a tower, but the style is
quite similar. There are a series of dungeons that the player needs
to explore. Dungeons are approximately 10 floors in length. At around
the middle floor of each, there will be a mini-boss, with the actual
boss awaiting at the final level. Despite this difference, the rest
acts much like Persona 3's Tartarus, with procedurally generated
layouts for each floor.

A given
floor of a section of Persona 3's Tartarus, or a dungeon of Persona
4, will take approximately 10 to 15 minutes total, including
exploration, combat, and finding the exit. With a worst-case scenario
estimate of about 15 floors per section of Tartarus in Persona 3, or
dungeon in Persona 4, this means that it will take about 2 hours and
30 minutes to complete any one section. This is less than half of the
time required to complete a labyrinth in Persona Q.

Having
said that, it is crucial to note that while it takes less time to
complete one dungeon, there are many more total segments in Persona 3
and Persona 4. As a result, the total time spent exploring these
areas is, at the very least, comparable. The difference is in the
pacing of the player's progress. Since the player is completing these
individual segments faster, they get the feeling that they are making
steadier progress. In truth, there is no real difference in the
amount of progress afforded by a single play-session. However, the
impression is that players are clearing areas in Persona 3 and 4
faster than they are in Persona Q.

There is
another way that Persona Q failed at pacing out the game. At the
game's core, there is only one activity: Dungeon-crawling. The game
is distinctly lacking in terms of variety. Aside from exploring the
labyrinths, the player can take Strolls around the culture festival
where the game takes place in order to talk with party members and
watch them interact with each other. Further, they can partake in
Persona Fusion, a franchise staple. Aside from buying and selling
equipment, items, and materials, there are also a number of
side-quests that can be taken. These quests involve doing small
favors for other party members, or locating specific areas and/or
defeating specific opponents in the labyrinths. Since these
side-quests often lead to players reentering the labyrinths to do
further exploration, they add to that poor pacing. After all, since
players are already in those labyrinths for several hours at a time,
letting them take a break from this by sending them back in, often to
the very floor they just advanced from, sounds a little silly.

By
comparison, Persona 3 and 4 allow players to spend about as much time
outside of the dungeons as they do inside. When not exploring these
locations, players can, as in Persona Q, manage equipment and fuse
personae. However, they may also spend time with other characters in
the game world to build relationships, which can be drawn on to power
their personae in fusion. As many of you know, this Social Link
system is a mainstay in later games of the Persona franchise.
Alternatively, they can spend time improving their social stats, like
Knowledge or Courage.

Both
games also offer a diverse set of side-quests. Though some of them
require players to delve back into the dungeons to find specific
items, most of them involve exploring the town. Some involve looking
for people wandering around on specific days. Others involve finding
an item in the area. Overall, since most of these excursions do not
involve dungeon-crawling, they improve the pacing by giving players a
way to take a break from the usual exploration, while allowing them
to better prepare for the next time they enter a dungeon.

Ultimately,
though Persona Q, Persona 3, and Persona 4 take around 70 hours each
to complete, the former is paced significantly worse than the later
two. This is something that only makes itself apparent after
investing large quantities of time into each game. Otherwise, these
pacing issues are much harder to pin down. Persona Q, while still a
very solid RPG, is a difficult beast to recommend. It is only really
worth playing if you are a huge fan of either Persona 3 or Persona 4,
preferably both. Further, it feels much different than a typical
persona game. Though I have not played Etrian Odyssey, I have been
told that the additions and changes to the series formula were mostly
taken from that franchise. As a result, the game is best for those
who enjoy Etrian Odyssey, or are interested in the series. I believe
that may be where I failed to meet the prerequisites, as those
elements did not appeal to me. If you are not that interested in
Etrian Odyssey, I would honestly recommend passing on Persona Q, as
you are not really missing much in. It is nice, but hardly necessary,
to see the Persona 3 and 4 casts interact in their respective primes.